Apple’s Mac OS X vulnerable?

McAfee is warning Mac users that they should update the software on their computer after it found evidence that the Mac operating system could be vulnerable to an attack.

McAfee said that Apple had already issued a patch and advised Mac users to download it.

It’s long been held that Macs were safer than PCs, with malicious worms and viruses mostly targeting Windows machines.

But could that change, what with Macs running on Intel chips, the Macbook selling at a brisk pace and the introduction of the iPhone, which runs on the Mac OS.

“For the last 10 years, it has been a PC and Windows-centric malware world,” said David Marcus, McAfee’s security research and commnications manager. Now “Apple is going through an interesting period of time. We see people using the Mac OS more and people using the iPhone, so people are looking at it… It makes it a much more interesting target.”

Someone known as “Information Security Sellout” or “InfoSec Sellout” published details of the vulnerability online several days ago (see this blog post, one of many), and it’s caused a bit of an uproar in the Mac online community (with even the fake Steve Jobs apparently chiming in. His comment: “Negative people upset me,” which is also his line on his blog).

Anuj Nayar, a spokesman for Apple, said, “Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users.”